Newly Appointed Etisalat Board to Decide Company’s Fate in Six Months

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Good morning.

1. The newly-appointed seven-member board of Etisalat Nigeria has been tasked to decide the fate of the telco in the next six months, during which options of an outright sale or merger with another operator will be considered. Link

2. South Africa’s GetSmarter has been acquired by NASDAQ listed 2U Inc for $103m in an all-cash transaction, and the company will remain as an independent subsidiary of the American digital education company. Link

+ Like 2U, GetSmarter offers online short courses in partnership with some renowned higher institutions. One interesting thing about the company is the fact that it has a course completion rate of 88%, which is better than the typical MOOC completion rate of <13% across the world.

+ And while we are on the topic of education, here’s a throwback article on why MOOCs have low completion rates. (Hint: a lack of incentive in the form of a clear path from completion to getting a paying job).

3. Lagos-based dot Learn was announced as the first runner-up in the Cisco Global Problem Solver Challenge a few days ago. The edtech startup won $75,000 in funding. They are now aiming to reach 100,000 end users across sub-Saharan Africa.

+ For some context, dot Learn was founded last year by Tunde Alawode and Sam Bhattacharyya – both MIT graduates. The team has been developing an interesting product for emerging markets (using 10,000x video compression technology) – a video-based learning platform that lets students take online courses with low bandwidth and for less than the cost of sending an SMS.

4. Applications for Andela Uganda’s third cohort of developers are open – with a deadline of July 17. Link

The open manifesto for the Yaba tech cluster is being drafted, and you can start contributing here.

Other things

+ Bitcoin is already playing a key role in the unsteady financial systems of some developing markets. Link

A message from LSETF

If you are involved in the Lagos tech ecosystem, the Lagos State Employment Trust Fund needs your input to guide its plans to support tech entrepreneurs. You can help out by visiting this page to take a survey